We have found ourselves in a time in history that now more than ever, the world needs to see believers who know exactly who they are in Christ.
Ephesians 6:10, AMP
Be strong in the Lord. Be empowered through your union with Him; draw your strength from Him.
So, if God tells us, we can have, we can do, we can be, instead of asking our carnal, human nature anything, on purpose believe Him.
Seriously be open to this reality today, if God’s going to do something in the earth today, it’s going to be through someone that will say yes to Him.
The apostle Paul’s revelation of the church being Christ body is one of the Holy Spirit’s primary objectives for every believer.
He’s actually counting on us discovering and exercising our authority over the powers of darkness.
As we make ourselves available to the Ephesian letter, our in Christ position is a key revelation.
Here’s the thing, our positional authority in Christ cannot be executed without a practical understanding how His grace, presence, and empowerment affects our everyday lives.
Ephesians 1He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.He has predestined us as sons and daughters.In Him we are redeemed.He has made known to us the mystery of His will.In Him we have obtained an inheritance.In Him we are sealed with the Holy Spirit who is our guarantee.
One of the first things being empowered by Christ demands is that we embrace being an expression of the fullness of Him.
Ephesians 1:15-23,(NKJV)Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Remember, one of the first things being empowered by Christ demands is that we embrace being an expression of the fullness of Him.The second revelation we’ve got to be open to is being united as one people.
Ephesians 2:1,4-10 (NKJV) And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:18-19 (NKJV)For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
Remember, first we’re empowered by Christ to be an expression of the fullness of Him.
Second, we’ve got to be open to is being united as one people.
The third phase of the Ephesian revelation is to mature, equip, and empower believers to advance Christ’s victory of darkness.
Ephesians 3:8-12 (NKJV)To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.
Ephesians 3:14-20 (NKJV)For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
Remember, first we’re empowered by Christ to be an expression of the fullness of Him.
Second, we’ve got to be open to is being united as one people.
Third, we become mature believers empowered to advance Christ’s victory of darkness.
Now keep in mind the first 3 chapters deal with our position in Christ.
The last 3 deal with our responsibility in Christ.As we move into the last 3 chapters, stay open to this reality, our “In Christ” life comes with spiritual, moral and ethical expectations.
In other words, A Strengthening Process
Ephesians 4:1 (NKJV) I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
Ephesians 4:21-24 (NKJV)If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 5:1 (NKJV)Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. Now you are light in the world, walk as children of light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
In Watchmen Nee’s book, “Sit, Walk, Stand, He covers these 3 key principles in Ephesians for spiritual development:
2:6, He has made us to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ.
4:1, We are to walk worthy of the calling He’s called us to.
6:11,13, That we’re able to stand against all the enemy’s tactics, and having done all, we’re to stand.